AstraZeneca Eyes Bid on Forest Labs

AstraZeneca  Eyes Bid on Forest Labs. 

Reports say that AstraZeneca (AZN) has met with Forest Labs (FRX) top executives concerning a takeover bid for the company. Forest Labs has a market cap of $15.2B and on Monday announced a restructuring on Monday.

Upgrades:

Electronic Arts (EA): Hilliard Lyons raised their rating from Underperform to Neutral. Pre-market: 21.57 +0.03 (0.14%)

US Bancorp (USB): Goldman Sachs raised their rating from Neutral to Conviction Buy and raised their target price from $40.00 to $44.00.

Downgrades:

AT&T (T): JPMorgan lowered their rating from Overweight to Neutral and placed a target price of $38.00 on the company.

Citigroup (C): Goldman Sachs lowered their rating from Conviction Buy to Neutral and raised their target price from $58.00 to $60.00.

eBay (EBAY): Evercore lowered their rating from Overweight to Equal Weight and placed a target price of $58.00 on the company.

Coverage Initiated:

Cablevision Systems (CVC): Northland Securities initiated coverage with a Market Perform rating and target price of $19.00.

Charter Communications (CHTR): Northland Securities initiated coverage with a Market Perform rating and target price of $146.00.

Comcast (CMCSA): Northland Securities initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and target price of $61.00.

Dish Network (DISH): Northland Securities initiated coverage with a Market Perform rating and target price of $61.00.

DIRECTV (DTV): Northland Securities initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and target price of $84.00.

McDonalds (MCD): Buckingham initiated coverage with a Neutral rating and target price of $99.00.

Mosaic (MOS): RBC Capital initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and target price of $57.00.

Time Warner Cable (TWC): Northland Securities initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and target price of $165.00.

Whirlpool (WHR): MKM Partners initiated coverage with a Buy rating and Target price of $183.00.

Earning Reports:

Bob Evans (BOBE): Reported EPS of $0.35 missing estimates by -$0.20. Pre-market: 51.99 -3.11 (-5.64%)

Brown-Forman (BF.B): Reported EPS of $0.96 beating estimates by +$0.05.

Express (EXPR): Reported EPS of $0.23 missing estimates by -$0.02. Pre-market: 20.06 -4.61 (-18.69%)

OmniVision (OVTI): Reported EPS of $0.60 beating estimates by +$0.17. Pre-market: 14.22 -1.77 (-11.07%)

Markets: 
Futures at 8:47: Dow -0.17%. S&P -0.19%. Nasdaq -0.09%. Crude +1.04% to $97.03. Gold +0.20% to $1223.50. U.S. 10 Year -15/32 2.841%.

Europe: London -0.59%. Paris -0.99%. Frankfurt -1.19%. 

Asia: Japan -2.17% to 15408. Hong Kong -0.76% to 23729. China +1.31% to 2252. India -0.70% to 20709. 

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Morning Coffee Pre-Market Wall Street News

U.S. GDP Tops Estimates. The advanced GDP reading on the U.S. economy was released this morning and topped Wall Street estimates. Economist had expected that the U.S. economy had slowed to a growth rate of only 1.1% down from the previous quarters 1.8% growth.  For Q2 the U.S. economy grew by 1.7%, however Q1 GDP was revised downwards to only 1.1% from the prior 1.8%.

Areas of strength in the economy included: Residential fixed investment which increased 13.4%, personal consumption which rose 1.8% and spending on durable goods which increased 6.5%.

Upgrades:

Boyd Gaming (BYD): JPMorgan raised their rating from Underweight to Neutral and raised their target price from $8.00 to $12.00.

Fresh Del Monte (FDP): CL King raised their rating from Neutral to Buy.

Downgrades:

Barclays PLC (BCS): Societe Generale lowered their rating from Buy to Hold.

Diego PLC ADS (DEO): Canaccord lowered their rating from Buy to Hold.

Jacobs Engineering (JEC): Johnson Rice lowered their rating from Overweight to Equal Weight.

Mosaic (MOS): Scotia lowered their rating from Outperform to Sector Perform.

R.R. Donnelley & Sons (RRD): The Benchmark Company lowered their rating from Buy to Hold and lowered their target price from $20.00 to $15.00.

Sprint Nextel (S): FBR Capital lowered their rating from Outperform to Market Perform and placed a target price of $6.00 on the company.

Earning Reports:

AFLAC (AFL): Reported EPS of $1.62 beating estimates by +$0.11.

Amgen (AMGN): Reported EPS of $1.89 beating estimates by +$0.15.

Anheuser-Bush InBev (BUD): Reported EPS of $0.93 missing estimates by -$0.12.

Comcast (CMCSA): Reported EPS of $0.65 beating estimates by +$0.02.

Fiserv (FISV): Reported EPS of $1.50 beating estimates by +$0.06.

MasterCard (MA): Reported EPS of $6.96 beating estimates by +$0.30.

Symantec (SYMC): Reported EPS of $0.44 beating estimates by +$0.08.

Markets: 
Futures at 6:15: Dow 0.0%. S&P +0.5%. Nasdaq 0.0%. Crude +0.2% to $103.33. Gold +0.5% to $1332. U.S. 10 Year -16/32 2.674%

Europe: London +0.6%. Paris +0.02%. Frankfurt +0.08%. 

Asia: Japan -1.45% to 13668. Hong Kong -0.32% to 21884. China +0.19% to 1994. India -0.05% to 19,339.